Safe
by Fair-Ithil
Summary: He'll do anything if it makes her better." FINISHED
1. Silence

**Spoilers:** **Special**, and possibly **Homecoming **

**A/N: **My first **Lost** story. This was really just one line in my head that wouldn't go away. I'll say right out, this is not my best work, but my flu meditation sorta addled my brain. I can only hope my next story will be better (kinda like I hope that Charlie and Claire will get better…together **sigh** one can hope) Anyway, read, enjoy, review.

_

* * *

__Even in a scary place like this, Charlie makes me feel safe…_

* * *

She hasn't spoken a word since Locke and Boone walked her into camp, not a single word. She just stares at them like a child, lost in the darkness of her own mind, huddled away from the rest of the world in a corner of the caves.

He brings her water and food, though she ignores it. "I'm not above feeding you." He tells her as he hold the water bottle to her lips. She doesn't breathe a word and barely drinks anything.

He worries. It's only been two days and Jack says it's shock, which normal after traumatic events; that she'll get better, even thought it seems as though he doesn't believe himself.

The baby's missing and he wonders if she notices. She must, he decides, as she holds her hands to her stomach with a pained look on her face.

There's an air of confusion around her, of fear and despair, and anger even.

He sits with her all day in silence waiting for her to come back, _really_ come back. Maybe he hadn't prayed hard enough. Or perhaps the island had returned her body but took her spirit.

He has her at his side and still he feels as though pieces of him are crumbling away, only at a slower pace, which only makes it feel worse.

He hasn't lost hope, not yet, though it seems as though everyone else has. Those who hadn't already avoided her before can't even look at _him_ anymore. He must seem pathetic to them, caring after a person who's probably just a shell as it is. He doesn't mind however, he'll do anything if it will make her better.

On the third night since her return he comes to check on her in the night to find her wide awake.

"Swearing off sleep along with talkin' then luv?" he says sitting down next to her.

"They took my baby."

He inhales sharply and looks her in the eye.

"Claire?"

"They took my baby…" Her voice is low and rough and still the most beautiful sound to his ears.

She's crying, rocking back and forth, hands cawling at the fabric that covers her stomach. "My baby."

"Claire." He moves to gather her in his arms but she pushes at his shoulders and he falls back, confused and hurt. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise." She just moves away from him, pressing her body into the stonewall until she can't move any farther.

"Stay away."

"C'mon Claire." He reaches out for her, but she makes a sound of protest in her throat and he stops. Panic rises in his heart and he moves back.

"I'm sorry." He says at last. It's funny, in completely humorless way, how he'd rehearsed every possible scenario in his mind and none of them ever went to so wrong as this. "I'm sorry Claire. I–" He doesn't quite know what to say anymore. He's sorry, more sorry than he could ever really get across, he's failed her, her child, and he hasn't the smallest idea of how to fix anything, or where to even start and he wishes he could kill Ethan though that doesn't really seem like the best thing to say for the time being.

"I'll find him Claire." He finds himself saying. "I'll bring him back to you. I know to you my word must be dirt, but I swear I'll find him."

"Why?" She doesn't seem so afraid anymore.

"Because I owe that to you. I-I let you down last time, but I won't do it again. I just need you to help me a little Claire."

She's crying again, one frail hand pressed against her eyes. "I can't help you."

He inches towards her on his knees, careful not to alarm her.

"I don't remember anything." She whisper, shoulders trembling as she lets out her grief.

"Neither did I, at first. Bits will come back to you, don't worry."

She calms down after a while, and hesitates for a moment for coming closer to him.

"What's your name?"

She doesn't know him anymore, doesn't remember who he is or how she felt about him, or how he makes her feel safe and his heart breaks though he tries not to show it. He should have known, really, one afternoon had made him forget a day, who was to say how much she's lost in a week.

He smiles a little and reaches for her hand; which she doesn't move away.

"Me? I'm Charlie."

"_Chahlie_." She tests his name on her tongue, feeling as though she's been saying it all her life.

"Hello Charlie."

"Hello Claire."

He knows he should go and tell Jack everything that's just taken place, he should go and enlist Locke or Sayid or even Boone to go search for the baby, but instead he settles in besides Claire who doesn't protest but leans against him slightly. "Tell me about all this Charlie. How did this happen?"

He starts from the beginning, telling her about the plane, the beach, Jack and the caves. He leaves out bits and pieces of the story, thinking it best not to overwhelm her yet.

She falls asleep and he stays to watch over her.

He has a vague idea of where to start now.

**A/N: I'm not sure where this is going, could be a stand-alone, could be continued. Don't really know. What do you all think?**


	2. Conflict

'You should have come to me the minute she spoke.' Jack snaps when Charlie comes to him in the early dark.

His own anger sparks at Jack's.

'And _you_ should've believed her when she said someone wanted to hurt her.'

A charged silence falls between them, only to collapse when Jack sighs in defeat. He knows now that he should have paid more attention to Claire in her distress but he's a doctor, a man of science who doesn't quite know what to make of dream warnings.

Charlie understands, it's hard to believe in something someone else has told isn't true, but he still feels some bitterness towards the man they silently call leader for not believing her, mostly because he likes to believe that she should have been spared and that God gave her those dreams as a way to save her, like He did to Joseph in order warn him of the danger his son was in should they linger in Bethlehem. Only on the island, they hadn't been wise enough to pay attention, too caught up in their own dilemmas.

'What does she remember?' Jack asks moving them a little further the cave entrance.

'Nothing.'

'Maybe she's not letting herself remember—'

'No Jack, she can't remember, like I couldn't remember.'

'How much has she forgotten then?'

'Haven't a clue. She didn't know me, didn't know anything about the plane crash either.'

Jack sits down around one of the dying fires and leans his head into his hands.

'She knows about her baby, They took it; she knows that. Jack, I still think we should look for Black Rock. That's probably where They took the baby—'

Jack shakes his head wearily, Charlie doesn't think he's ever seen Jack look so tired, not even when they tunneled their way out of the cave.

'If the rock really is what you and Sayid think it is, it would be like marching right into enemy territory. Besides I don't really think it's a good idea to be rash right now—'

'Rash? This is her baby, Jack! We barely looked for her to begin with and now you're telling me that we're, flat out, not going to look for him now!' He raises his voice as much as he dares and glares at the ashes at Jack's feet. His anger isn't good for much, he knows, but he'll be damned if he's going to just sit and watch while Jack does nothing about Claire's baby.

'Let's pretend for a minute,' Jack starts quietly. 'That we were to go and look for this _black rock_, and we do find the baby, what do we do then? Are we suppose to just walk right back?'

'I'm not claiming it's gonna be easy Jack, but we owe it to Claire.'

Jack looks up then. 'Charlie I know you feel guilty about what's happened but you didn't—'

Charlie turns around and begins making his way back to the caves.

'Whether you're with me or not, I'm going looking when the sun's up.'

* * *

Scott and Steve and a few others agree to come with him, while Hurley agrees to look after Claire even though he makes his discomfort known. ' But she's nice girl.' He finishes handing Charlie a couple of water bottles.

Jack just looks on from the side as he makes his way to the watering hole, disapproval clear in his eyes; Charlie no longer cares.

He walks back into the caves a final time and lowers himself into Claire's nook. 'Hello there.' He says brightly and she smiles a little at him.

' We're going now.'

Her smile disappears.

'Listen, my friend Hurley, gonna keep you company, he's a real nice bloke, shouldn't give you any trouble. If you need anything, water, banana, a blanket, just ask him alright.'

' I don't want to be a burden—' She starts in a low voice.

'You a burden? Never.' He gets up to leave and she follows him with her eyes.

'Charlie.' She calls just before he's fully out of the small space. 'Thank you. For everything.'

He feels the corner of his mouth lift and nods. ' I'll find him.'

He barely catches her whispered 'Be careful' before declaring it's time to go.


	3. Watched

Kate presses the cool metal against his palm. 'Keep it close.' She says before walking away.

He wonders if Jack knows his golden lady just gave him a gun before deciding it isn't really important.

He puts the gun away, he'll think about it later.

A week has passed since Claire's return and each search yields nothing, though always he walks the jungle with the keen feeling of being watched. Perhaps he's finally gone mad from paranoia or maybe there's more to the feeling, he isn't sure.

For now he sits besides Claire by the fire, quietly eating the little boar they have left for the week.

'Charlie?'

'Hmm.'

'How do you know if it's a boy?'

'What?'

'The baby. You say he, and him, and well, how do you know it's a boy?'

'It's not?' He asks suddenly worried he's been making things worst for her.

She looks sadly down at her meal and shakes her head.

'I don't know. They didn't let me see him, her, before they took them away.'

'You wanted a boy.'

Hesays quietly, lookingaway. He looks out into the jungle, the sounds of the night reaching his ears. For a moment he thinks he sees eyes staring at him but they disappear and he thinks it is just the fire.

'What happened to your neck?' she asks as suddenly as she did the other question.

He shifts uncomfortably in his seat.

'I was injured.' He says simply.

'On the island?'

He nods.

'How?'

'I was—' he isn't quite sure what to say. Hanged and brought back to life hardly seems appropriate. 'Caught on something and when I pulled away this,' he points at his neck. 'Was what was left.'

She takes his answer and finishes her dinner quickly, leaving him alone to finish his own, though he's not very hungry anymore.

In the week she's been back she's adjusted well enough to the situation.

She knows some people by name, helps out every now and again, leaves her nook for dinner even though she eats a little way apart from the rest of the group.

She can't remember anything that's happened on the island, her last memory being leaving the adoption office. Well, at least she still hates Thomas, he thinks selfishly sometimes.

She doesn't remember anything about him.

He remembers the look on her face when she came across the empty glass jar in her bags. For some reason the fact she can't remember the best peanut butter in the world hurts a bit more than the fact she can't remember him.

There's a snapping of twigs from the jungle and he peers into the darkness, knowing he didn't imagine that.


	4. Meeting

The weeks pass and everyday they return to the camp without her baby.

She keeps her disappointment hidden, though he hears her cry every night.

Sayid's maps offer no clues as to where Black Rock might be, and the search party finds no trails to follow.

There is no real hope left in any of them, perhaps not even inCharlie.

One night he hears her humming a broken tune he can't really place and decides it should have been a lullaby.

There's no other path of him after that.

He leaves before dawn the next morning, knowing what he has to do.

He walks for hours, calling upon the vaguest of memories to find his way.

The trudge up the seep hillside proves to be the hardest part, his heart beating insanely behind his ribs every inch of the way. And then he's in the clearing, the storm clouds gathering clear overhead, the vines hanging threateningly from the trees. He shivers his blood running cold at the memory of the place. The echoing of Claire's screams and Ethan's cold laughter replaying in his mind a thousand times, he almost expects the scene to play out before him.

'Charlie?'

Her voice is small, frightened, and for a moment he thinks that really it's little more than another memory, but then he sees her, leaves caught in her hair, hands scratched, shirt hanging limply over her flat stomach… and suddenly the air is charged and there's a pressing danger around them. He moves to Claire, helping her up, wanting to reprimand her for following her but wanting to protect her more. She opens her mouth, to explain he assumes, but closes it again as she looks off in the distance. He looks too and sees nothing.

'Clai—'

She shhs him, moving a little away, and then he hears it too. The sound of a baby crying. Faintly, almost impossible to hear, but then it goes louder and Claire sets off in a run.

Charlie follows her, unwilling to lose her again. He keeps his eyes fixed on the sight of her flaxen hair, until the very trees swallow her and he can't see her anymore. The baby cries louder, and he runs towards the sound knowing it'll lead him to Claire.

But soon the baby's cries are drowned out by the sound of Claire screaming.

He pushes himself to go faster, ignoring the thicker trees and the vines that seem to almost reach out in an attempt to stop him. He won't let them.

Her screams become muffled but he only runs faster.

He stumbles into a clearing, and found himself facing the man who's haunted his dreams for what feels like eternity.

'Charlie, nice of you to join us, I was waiting for you.'

Cold eyes glare from across the clearing and the air is pushed out of his lungs.

Claire stands in front of Ethan, her body held against his, a blade at her throat. A kicking bundle of blankets lay at their feet and he knows the fate of the four of them is decided in that moment.

The gun Kate gave him seems to burn inside his pocket, his finger twitch to reach for it.

He looks at a terrified Claire and then at the mound on the ground.

'Now don't get any ideas there Charlie. Wouldn't want her to get hurt because you did something stupid, would you?' She whimpers as Ethan presses the blade a bit closer.

'What do you want?'

There's a glint in Ethan's eyes that terrifies him, the look of someone on the edge. He smiles a twisted smile that makes his stomach lurch and

'To finish what I've started.' Ethan says calmly, blade moving ever so slightly, drawing forth a line of bright red on Claire's pale neck.

Before he knows what happened he hears Claire shouting, and the baby's crying louder. He's pulled the gun and Ethan's charged at him because Charlie hadn't been pointing the gun at him, but at the baby.

And he's back against the tree, Ethan's hand around his throat, the gun clutched in his hand. Then a sharp snap as his wrist is broken and the gun falls to the floor only to be kicked away by shuffling feet.

'No doctor to save you this time Charlie.' Ethan hisses in his ear as the world begins to blur at the edges.

Baby crying and Ethan's gloating words, and, suddenly, the sound of a gunshot echoing through the heavy silence.

He feels Ethan's grip loosen slightly at first as a look of surprise covered his features. Then his hand fell away and he stumbled back, falling to the floor with a deafening thud.

Charlie falls forward as well, gasping for air, crawling slowly towards the blankets and a weeping Claire with a gun in her hands.

**A/N: **Sorry it took so long.


	5. Ashes

He stares at her, with her broken eyes and shaking hands. She doesn't take her eyes off Ethan, the gun still poised in the air before her.

'Claire…'

Her lips tremble and she chokes out a sob. Her arms fall to her side, the gun falling with a soft thud on the jungle floor.

Then she's just standing there, staring mutely at a lifeless man.

'Claire. Love,' he takes one of her limp hands in his own, 'You're baby.'

She looks down slowly, her eyes clouded, unfocused.

'Baby…'

She kneels across from him, shaking fingers revealing a round face they've only dreamed about.

He holds his breath in anticipation, eyeing the small tear streaked face that's revealed to him, a small month contorted in a wail, blue eyes staring frantically around, his mother's eyes.

'Baby…' Claire mouths, awkward hands brushing away brown leaves and dirt, fingers tracing tiny eyes and nose, tears tumbling from her eyes all the while.

He hears a bird call the distance, followed by the rolling thunder. They have to move.

The pain in his wrist flares as he wraps his arm around Claire's slender shoulders, as hold the baby close and they begin to walk.

He keeps his eyes open, straining his ears for any sound in the jungle around them.

Every snapping twig or rustling leave becomes footsteps, whispers. The Others.

The jungle becomes a maze, and the threat of a downpour, or worst, being caught hangs over them. His wrist had swollen, Baby has quieted, Claire won't stop looking around.

His feet are heavy and the sun is completely lost in the storm grey clouds by the time Vincent and Walt stumble down the green path.

'Charlie where have—DAD!' The little boy's greeting turns into a bellow and he races up the path as Vincent barks around them.

The baby's crying starts again, and Jack and Michael appear before the weary pair.

There's a wordless moment where they can really only stare at on another, four adults all staring speechless at the bundle at in Claire's arms. Jack clears his throat.

'How—'

He's too tired to begin.

* * *

Jack takes the baby from her, to look him over. Claire nods wordlessly, watching but not moving after Jack. Charlie moves to her side. 'Claire?' 

She blinks and glances at him, moving towards the unclaimed bags that have been rummaged through time and time again. He watches silently from behind as she digs through the bags and pulls from it a sweater. Then another sweater, and a shirt, before moving to her sleeping area and pulling an airline blanket out of her bag.

She walks to Jack then, handing the doctor the bundle of clothes in her hands. Jack finishes his inspection and wraps the baby in them, tossing the crude brown blankets to the side.

He watches as Claire takes those and tosses them on the fire.

He thinks of Ethan then, wondering if he's been found. Charlie wonders what pushed him so to claim both Claire and her child. He wonders if there's someone who will miss him, someone who will notice he never returned from his errand in the jungle.Charlie wonders if dyingwasthe same forEthan as it had beenfor him, the endless darkness where heknew nothing and still felt no fear.He looks into the jungle and wonders what God's decided for Ethan. And Claire. And thebaby. For him...

He watches silently as the edges of the blanket curl in on themselves, the smoke from the fire reaching up towards the matching sky.

And then it's gone, and all that's left are ashes.

**A/N:**And now a moment of silence for Scott. He will be missed.


	6. Past Lives

The baby's healthy, Jack tells them, little startled, but healthy.

* * *

'Miranda,' Claire names _her_ quietly.

'_Miranda_' the name rolls off his tongue in such a way he can't help the small smile that appears.

No boy but a girl, a girl who will grow up to have her mother's smile.

* * *

'How's you're hand?' She asks as he sits down besides her, eyes straying to the sleeping girl in her arms.

'Fine and dandy.' He replies with a grin.

It's been six days since the encounter with Ethan, and with the exception of the wailing that now keeps the camp up some nights, things are relatively normal, unless of course he sat down and really thought about any of it, then very little was actually normal, from the baby in her arms to the noises in the jungle.

'How's the little one?'

She smiles at him.

'She's good. Jack says she's a bit small but good.'

He feels her eyes on him and looks up. Claire eyes him for a moment before shifting the baby in her arms.

He wonders that she seems so comfortable in this role, the stiffness of her arms gone as they wrap around the child she'd once meant to give away. But that doesn't matter anymore, that was part of another time, another life, and now all that left is the two of them, sitting in the sun, her daughter safe in her arms, an idealistic picture.

He knows they're not safe, not really, not yet. He knows she probably won't ever be safe, not until she's off the island, away from The Others, whoever they may be.

'Would you like to hold her?'

Then the warm weight of Miranda is in his arms, and he feels both panic and joy at having the little girl so close. A little hand reaches out to him, and then his own finger, with the chipped black nail polish, is encased in a tiny fist and he feels like every things fallen into place.

'Thank you Cha_h_lie.'

And for a moment there's perfect clarity in her eyes and everything is as normal as allowed to be, she was back, whole. But the moment passes and the haze of confusion settles in once more.

She lays a hand on his arm, fingers avoiding his bound wrist. His heart thumps almost painfully in his chest and he swallows the lump in throat looking at her.

He'll do anything to make her better, he's promised her, both aloud and silently, and she knows without a doubt he truly will.

He loves her, and, perhaps, once upon a time, she could have loved him, time given, but that's a part of another life as well, at least for the time being. For now he'll just keep her safe.

'I—' and she opens her mouth only to close it again, and he smiles, not truly needing to hear any sort of thank you. And when she speaks again, it stops his heart, a million times better than any record deal or rescue boat or thank you.

'I remember peanut butter.'

**THE END**

**A/N: **Okay, first, I don't own the last line. Anyone who saw last night's epi. knows who does. The same people who own it all... Anyway, the ending is a bit _off _but it's the best I can do without going off into a sixty chapter story about how Charlie helps Claire raise little Mira AND get her memory back. Thanks for reading, reviewing, I hope you've enjoyed the story.


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